In Cold Blood

Perry is a complex and damaged man. Though Capote delves into his disadvantaged upbringing and history of abuse and pain to unearth elements of Perry’s intelligence, sensitivity, and talent, he nevertheless refrains from glorifying Perry as an antihero, as he also makes it clear Perry repeatedly and deliberately chooses to go down a self-destructive path. Possibly because of Capote’s affinity for Perry which developed over the course of him interviewing Perry for his novel, Capote emphasises Perry’s artistic side, but he also has Dewey note that Perry seems like “the true murderer” of the story.

It is likely Perry was a paranoid schizophrenic with this condition either caused or exacerbated by his traumatic childhood. His mother is an alcoholic who dies choking on her own vomit having lived a miserable life of domestic abuse, and his father soon abandons him – a “hated, hating half-breed child” (Perry was half-Cherokee) – in the care of nuns whose abuse leaves him with a life-long hatred for them (and perhaps even religion as a whole). Two of his sisters commit suicide, and he is unable to form close relationships with anyone else in his family. Capote also includes various details that some critics have argued humanise Perry too much, making him excessively sympathetic, such as the fact that he wets the bed and cries himself to sleep like a child. However, we could also argue that these add to the tragedy Capote attempts to explore – although Perry was criminally responsible for his actions that night on the Clutter farm, he had very little control over the other events in his life that shaped him, making him a compelling character if not a wholly sympathetic one.

There are many contradictory elements to Perry’s character. He did not receive a formal education, but he has an inexplicably sophisticated vocabulary. He appears to be the more sensible, thoughtful, and sympathetic of the two killers, but he is also at times undeniably brutal. And in one of my favourite lines of the text, Capote describes how “the quietness of his tone italicised the malice of his reply,” which hints at an unfathomably dark and sinister side to Perry.
 
He detests any talk of sex (particularly from Dick) but could be said to perhaps harbour some homosexual tendencies towards Dick or other male figures he pursues in his life, such as Willie-Jay, though it is equally possible he is asexual with a complete aversion to physical intimacy, and this may just be a desperate search for any kind of attachment, given this was denied to him in childhood. It is implied that he has sex with Cookie, but he describes this as “strange” and regards their potential love or marriage with a degree of detachment such that she is now just “a girl [he] almost married.”

Perry briefly joins the army but then abandons this to become a vagabond before he is severely injured in a motorbike accident. His constant pain leads to him developing an addiction to aspirin. Out of pity for Dick’s mother, Perry claims responsibility for all four murders, and he dies uttering the plangent quote “Maybe I had something to contribute, something –” before apologising.

The letter Willie-Jay leaves Perry upon his release from prison is a very useful passage in helping us understand Perry’s character, as he candidly explicates Perry’s fundamental character flaws and the danger he is in if these go unchecked. The contradictory nature of Perry is perhaps best summarised by one of the novel’s most famous quotes: “I thought [Mr Clutter] was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.” That Perry can make judgements about people’s character and yet commit such heinous acts makes it hard for us, as well as for the law enforcement figures and officers of the court, to determine his criminal capacity and mental sanity.